Out of 7 companies that had bade for second phase project of Bhairahawa Airport which comprises of installation of various equipment, the airport project is likely to elect Thai firm ‘Aeronautical Radio of Thailand’. The project includes installation of CNS (Communication, Navigation and Surveillance) and Air Traffic Management systems for the airport.
Out of 7 companies, 3 companies from Spain, MSI-aeronav and Thai firm quoted the least amount of price for development which was published on September stated CAAN official.
The 7 firms that had applied for the project last November and the financial bids were opened last Friday among which the Thai firm is stated to have quoted around 560 million.
The final evaluation of bidders is expected to take some more time after which the firm will be selected. The evaluation of the project bidders will be then forwarded to the main financier of the Project Asian Development Bank (ADB) and after receiving no objection letter from the bank, the contract will be signed with negotiation on price and installation time.
The project duration will be of 9 months from the day of contract awarded and the project is expected to commence from February. The project will be divided into 4 phases that will include installation, testing, authorizing and flight calibration of navigation and communication systems.
The airport runway of the airport will be 3,000 meters long which is expected to come into operation by March of 2019. The construction work of terminal buildings, water tanks, and control towers, among other infrastructures, are also underway of construction.
The airport is set to have CAT I standard Instrument Landing System (ILS).
Nepal Oil Corporation is also set to establish aviation fuel depot at the airport which will have capacity to reserve fuel of around two thousand kiloliter.
The project was hindered by dispute over payment between Chinese contractor and Nepali sub-contractor that made delay in construction work along with other obstacles.
The construction was due to complete by the end of 2017 however it couldn’t complete due to Madhes movement, blockade, earthquake etc. and the construction company had requested to extend the deadline till 2019.
The government has been prioritizing on the airport and has been working on its completion in order to aid in ‘Tourism year-2020’ to bring around 2 million tourist in the country.
